


Across the Universe

by bicycles



Category: Marvel (Comics), Marvel 616
Genre: Feelings, Fluff, M/M, Not Canon Compliant, Vignette
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-01
Updated: 2016-03-01
Packaged: 2018-05-24 01:50:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,626
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6137171
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bicycles/pseuds/bicycles
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A series of vignettes in which Billy and Teddy are the most adorable couple in the Marvel comics-verse. This is vaguely canon compliant, but it doesn't directly reference any of the Young Avengers comics. Mostly, it is fluffy feelings.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Across the Universe

No stars hung in the Manhattan sky. There were only towering apartment buildings, crowded together until all Billy saw were lights, bricks, and that old man at his evening yoga routine. He looked away, silently wishing that his neighbors had thought to invest in curtains. But he didn't wish _too_ hard. With his luck, he'd have gifted all his neighbors with yellow floral curtains by sunrise.

Which, he thought as the man fell into another downward facing dog, might not be a bad thing. 

"What are you doing out here? It's _freezing_. 

He turned from his survey of the world to see his boyfriend, looking all the more frazzled in his movie theater uniform. So, Teddy had just come from work. That explained everything. "Hey to you, too."  He shifted on the fire escape, the metal creaking under him as he moved to give his boyfriend space. They moved together for a moment, until he was pressed close to Teddy's chest, eyes fixed on the cloudy sky above. "I was keeping watch over the city…" 

"What, like, Spider-Man?" 

He felt the warmth of Teddy's breath against his skin, the press of Teddy's hands in the loose folds of his hooded sweatshirt. "Something like that," he half-whispered. "I thought that was what we do now." 

"I thought that was what _I_ do now. You're...retired."

The last word was muffled into his hair, as he shifted his head upwards. When he looked at Teddy from this angle, he saw everything that he loved at once: the sharp curve of his chin, his ruffled sandy-blonde hair, and those eyes. They said the eyes were the windows to the soul. Which was complete poetic bullshit. The sort of poetic bullshit that Billy only said late at night, when he had his fingers intertwined with Teddy's, and was thinking about saving the world again from a cold, rusty fire escape. 

They seemed to move in unison. One moment, Billy's fingers were wrapped in Teddy's, and then, he was turning, half in the other boy's lap, pressing lips to mouth. It was uncoordinated, and awkward, and their noses often touched in all the wrong ways. Until there was that slight shift, Teddy's hand was at his back now, and Billy was all movement. Hands in hair, hands at Teddy's neck, hands at Teddy's side. 

"You smell like burnt popcorn," he said, through broken kisses. "And, like, one of those blue slush things…" 

They were closer now, close enough that Billy felt like they'd become one entity. Close enough that when Billy moved at just the right angle, it sent an electric feeling through his body. "And God, you're perfect…" It didn't matter that they were making out on a fire escape that might crash to the ground any moment, or that their downward dog neighbor suddenly had something to distract him from his ritual namastes, or that the Kaplans weren't exactly asleep yet. All that mattered was that Teddy was here, in that ugly black uniform, smelling like an extra butter special. 

"Um, so, Wiccan…you were saying...before how perfect I am...about your retirement… Do you think you could apparate us somewhere warmer?" 

Billy's hands were wrapped tight in Teddy's collar. "One, I don't apparate. Two… I don't apparate…" He closed his eyes as he wished really hard for his bed, the metal shifting to something...softer. "And three…"

"Three?"

"I think you should spend the night here."

 

\--  


 

The stars were bright on the beach. They were so bright that Billy wondered how it was possible that he'd spent his entire living under them and not really known they were _here_. How was it possible that a universe existed out there where _he_ had created the stars? That seemed more impossible than all these beacons of light above him, the flickering remnants of stars light years away.

He pressed his palm against Teddy's. They had been here long enough that their usual banter had fallen into an easy silence, until they just were. Two boys caught underneath a canopy of bright, far away worlds, worlds that they might have already been to, some they might never know. That was how superheroing worked, Billy figured. 

"I got you something else, too," Billy said, releasing his boyfriend's hand. "It's…" He pulled a small box from his pocket. "The paper was my mom's." He tried to ignore the faint tinge of pink at his cheeks as he thought about handing over an anniversary gift wrapped in reindeer stormtroopers. "It's not what you wanted. Not that you wanted anything, but if you did..." _Breathe, Kaplan_.

It had been two years since they'd started dating, and it still felt like yesterday that they'd been standing over those Captain America comics, talking about Spanish class and how Billy needed to find a calculus tutor. He might be a nerd, but he wasn't the type of nerd who could put numbers together on a page. That was Teddy. Teddy was the one with the strategies, with the quick-witted way of putting one and one together to get two. The best Billy could do was tell that differential calculus had to do with changes, and well, all the changes that mattered to him were right in front of him. 

Teddy was the best damn change to have walked into his life. The gift was a testament to that. He'd wanted it to be perfect, so perfect that he'd reached out to _Magneto_ for help. Being back on the superhero scene was one thing. Being in touch with his slightly estranged spiritual grandfather was another entirely.

The paper had proved tougher than it looked, and when Teddy finally got the lid off the box, he seemed to pause a beat. Or, thought Billy, maybe that was just his head putting hesitation where there was none. 

"How … It's … I can't believe you made this, Wiccan." There was that way that Teddy's breath always seemed to catch around Billy's superhero name, as though he wanted to keep it all for himself. Even if it was stupid. The whole world knew who Wiccan was, only Teddy knew about Billy. 

"I had help," said Billy, taking the chain from the box. When he clasped it around Teddy's neck, the two rings hung just above his heart. "They're your mom's… I found them when we were…" He didn't want to say cleaning up the wreckage of her apartment. That wouldn't be entirely true, anyway. There had been very little wreckage to clean up. "Happy anniversary, Hulkling. I love you." 

"I know."

"You can't." Billy pulled back far enough to look Teddy in the eyes, serious now. "You can't Han Solo our relationship. I'm _not_ Princess Leia. I'm very much a borderline Vader…I just..." 

"Borderline Vader? Really?"

"It comes with the sinister chaos-inducing superpowers..."

"Uh-huh. So, chaos-inducing Sith Lord with the perfect anniversary gifts, what do I call you now?"

"Oh, I think you should call me Billy, Mr. Solo. Demiurge's just a mouthful." 

 

\--  


 

The sun burned his eyes. It was one of those hot summer days where even the air seemed charged with heat, and it just seemed worse out here where all he could see were red, red rocks. 

"You know, the next time we follow a bunch of hardened criminals into the desert, I think we should abandon the tights,"  Speed was saying over the next outcropping of short, stubby boulders. "I'm starting to really feel it out here…" 

"You said that last week. When we were in the city." He heard Kate interject.

"Yea, and I really, really mean it this time…" Their voices faded into the distance.

"They're not here." Billy turned to see his boyfriend slowly shifting back into his human form. He looked exhausted. Which fit the entire chasing hardened criminals across the desert scenario. They had been following the same group of villains across the western U.S., but so far, the only success they'd had was in not ending up on the wrong end of a freeze ray. 

As far as Billy was concerned, that qualified as a success. He had been back on the superhero scene only a few months, and already, he remembered all the reasons they'd quit the first time. 

"So, what's the plan?" 

"Regroup with Iron Patriot and America. Talk strategy. And then…"

Teddy seemed to loom over him in that moment. Even though they were nearly the same height, Teddy always seemed to be so much _taller_ than him. It made him feel as though he could be swept up into those arms and carried off to some distant tower permanently. Which was another stupid thought, because Billy Kaplan was _not_ a damsel in distress. 

"And then?" he repeated, pushing the issue.

"And then… well…" Teddy's arms lingered at his waist. "I didn't forget your birthday. Think heroics can wait one night?" 

"Mm… I don't know, _Hulkling_. Wouldn't want people to think you're too much of a scoundrel." 

"I think…" said Teddy, pulling Billy closer until all Billy could think about was damn, his boyfriend had muscles. And damn, they needed to stay in a place with running hot water for at least one night. And why couldn't that be tonight? "I think you like me… No, just no. You know I can't say that with a straight face. You need to stop this." 

"You're the one who started it." 

It happened like that, like it was meant to happen exactly so. They were arguing about who was the best damn Han Solo, and then, Teddy's arms were around him, and they were breathing in the taste of peppermints and waffle houses and sweet desert air. 

"Mr. Vader," said Teddy, "I think I love you."

"I love you, too." 

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for some of my favorite people in the Marvel fandom. Thanks for getting me back into comics and writing.


End file.
